Two area storage facilities bought

Friday

Aug 28, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 28, 2009 at 5:52 PM

FAIRHAVEN — A Massachusetts storage company, that last year purchased a New Bedford site, just announced it has bought two more facilities in Southeastern Massachusetts, in Fairhaven and Falmouth. Based in Newton Highlands and Michigan, Storage Opportunity Partners LLC and Storage Pros Self Storage owns and operates 13 properties with the purchase, including seven sites in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island.

By Beth PerdueBulletin editor

By Beth Perdue

Bulletin editor

FAIRHAVEN — A Massachusetts storage company, that last year purchased a New Bedford site, just announced it has bought two more facilities in Southeastern Massachusetts, in Fairhaven and Falmouth. Based in Newton Highlands and Michigan, Storage Opportunity Partners LLC and Storage Pros Self Storage owns and operates 13 properties with the purchase, including seven sites in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island.

Located on Lambeth Park Drive off Alden Road, the Fairhaven facility has frontage on Route 240, and consists of 41,500-square-feet in six single-story buildings, the company said in a statement. Formerly Uncle Bob's Self-Storage, new ownership plans to tear down one storage building to create 6,100-square-feet of climate-controlled space. Budget Truck Rental will also be added at Fairhaven.

Since buying the New Bedford site on Hathaway Road last year, occupancy of storage units increased from 58 to close to 70 percent, said Matt Wheeler, assistant to regional manager, adding the company hopes to experience similar growth in Fairhaven.

The company has also had substantial success with its Rhode Island location, also purchased last year, Wheeler said. The site gets good traffic from both the nearby military base and local universities like Salve Regina, he said.

The Falmouth facility, located on Route 28, has 79,495-square-feet in five two-story buildings with more than 30,000-square- feet of climate-controlled space.

According to David Levenfeld, co-founder and CEO of StorageOp, the company has a cluster of storage facilities around Brockton, New Bedford, and now the Cape, a move that helps them share costs and thereby increase profits.

"We intend to continue our disciplined growth strategy within our core markets," he said. "We would be open to purchasing any self storage properties within the general Southeastern Massachusetts area. More stores in SouthCoast would be great."